Forbidden Zone is a completely bonkers 1980 musical directed and written by Richard Elfman and Matthew Bright (who would later direct Freeway) as a vehicle for the antics of their band, The Mystic Knights Of The Oingo Boingo. At the time, the band was a stage art troupe that would later become a successful New Wave and Ska band, with Richard's little brother Danny Elfman as its frontman.

The movie's story focuses on a family that moves in a house that has in the basement a door to the sixth dimension that they pretty much try to ignore, but when the eldest daughter returns from her studies in France, curiosity attracts her to investigate. Heavily inspired by Cab Calloway, Betty Boop cartoons and Underground Comics.

This movie is groundbreaking for being the first film that Danny Elfman ever composed a soundtrack for (no surprise considering his brother is the director and screenwriter, his brother's wife is the protagonist, and their father and grandfather both play characters in the film). Danny himself plays the devil while the rest of the original Oingo Boingo band (when it was known as The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo) are here as his minions. The film also includes a post-Fantasy Island Hervé Villechaize and pre-Cry-Baby Susan Tyrell.

A sequel is on its way: "Forbidden Zone 2: Forbidden Galaxy." Here's a trailer: the Princess (now Princess Polly) has apparently taken the helm and is taking the offensive to conquer Earth. Richard and Danny Elfman are both involved, as are Ego Plum and the crew from "Monster Man".

Blackface: A character seen briefly at the start (and in a throwaway gag near the middle) is a slumlord and crack dealer played by a man in blackface; there are several others in bit parts throughout, done for comedic shock value.

Chew Toy: Squeezit to a ridiculous extent. Originally the scene when his father beats him while his mother laughs was going to be ten minutes long and the weird scene when he was going to say the Pledge of Allegiance actually was going to have him castrated.

Deliberately Monochrome: Well, maybe not deliberately. The director intended the black-and-white footage to be colorized by hand, but found it would be too costly to pull off; it's since been digitally colorized.

Synchro-Vox: Used briefly during the "Bim Bam Boom" musical number; the young boy who played the Princess's "pet" successfully lip-synched the vocals in rehearsal, but became nervous and froze when cameras were rolling. Richard Elfman's solution was to loop usable footage from his spoiled performance (most evident when paying close attention to the Kipper Kids in the background, who are clearly moving forward then in reverse), and superimpose the lips of Matthew Bright, who played Squeezit. The visual style of the film is so bizarre that this odd scene just... works.

Table Space: The king and the queen, and a human chandelier over them.

Those Two Guys: The Kipper Kids, semi-famous performance artists who appear both in and out of the Sixth Dimension as a pair of grunting boxers and pug-nosed twin sisters, respectively.

Unexplained Recovery: Johnny shoots Billy to death in the classroom for cheating at cards, and gets into a protracted gunfight with the teacher, who presumably kills him with the machine gun she keeps under her desk. Both of them still somehow come to class the next day.

Villain Song: "Witch's Egg" and "Queen's Revenge" by Queen Doris and "Squeezit The Moocher" by the devil

Amplified by the fact that the late Susan Tyrrell (who played Queen Doris) actually co-wrote "Witch's Egg".

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